Here are three 'Standalone' players, versions of Flash Player 9, 10 and 32 (i.e. two very early builds of Flash, plus the very latest build of Flash), from Macromedia / Adobe. These players will play Flash content without needing a web browser.

They are designed to run .SWF (ShockWave Flash) files.

These three programs run on Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 (if you are looking for Flash software to run on something other than Windows, such as an Android or Mac operating system, please see the link at the end of this section).


Many types of Flash content can run in a standalone version of the Flash Player. For example:

•  A nice selection of digital and analogue clocks and calendars -

If you want to see these sites in all their glory, you'll need to open them in a browser that supports Flash, such as Internet Explorer 8 (highly recommended for running old Flash content).

If you open the sites in a modern browser, you won't see the flash animations running, but you will see the links to the .swf files to download, in which the flash content is stored, which files you can download to your computer and run in a standalone Flash player.


Ed Mullen's clocks page -
https://edmullen.net/fclock.php

    Examples:-
    https://edmullen.net/flash/bbc1.swf
    https://edmullen.net/flash/BBC2.swf
    https://edmullen.net/flash/clock1.swf
    https://edmullen.net/flash/clock4.swf


Dave Jeffery's Flash Files -

Here is Dave's page, but he has rewritten it to run without Flash:
  https://625.uk.com/tv_logos/flash2.htm
so I've included here his original Flash versions of his files.

Dave's British site covers the following topics -

• Clocks - as used by the BBC, the ITV companies and Channel 4
• Schools & Colleges - symbols, clocks and countdowns shown during BBC and ITV schools programming
• The Open University - idents and a clock shown before Open University programmes
• Test Cards - as used by the BBC and the ITA/IBA

The Internet is still rife with old .swf format Flash files. A search will find plenty. I'm just mentioning a couple of sites where you can look at some examples of .swf files to see some of the interesting things the format can accomplish.

Adobe had a bad record on security. Flash is a dangerous technology, because of the security holes it leaves open for malware to exploit, which is why Flash failed; but the two sites in these examples are safe to use. Any .swf files you may find by a search, however, must be scanned by your antivirus software before being opened or run.



If you are looking for more than just a 'standalone' Flash Player program -

There is a larger collection of Flash utils (for Android, Mac, and Windows) here:

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